Zelensky says willing to discuss giving up occupied territory if Ukraine could join NATO

Zelensky says willing to 'discuss giving up occupied territory' if 'Ukraine could join NATO'

In an interview on NBC News “Meet the Press,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky laid out his vision for ending the war in his country in partnership with President Donald Trump — making clear that he would never accept a peace deal negotiated by the U.S. and Russia without Ukraine at the table.

“I will never accept any decisions between the United States and Russia about Ukraine, never,” Zelensky told “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker on Friday in Munich, Germany. “This is the war in Ukraine, against us, and it’s our human losses.”

Efforts to end the war in Ukraine were in focus this week as members of the Trump administration, several GOP senators, European leaders and Zelensky gathered in Germany for the Munich Security Conference.

As he spoke about the potential for Ukraine and Russia to begin negotiations to end the war, Zelensky called for European allies to join the negotiating table, too, warning about what could happen to NATO if Russia isn’t stopped or if the U.S. withdraws from the group.

Referring to intelligence Ukraine has shared with allies about the Russian army’s ongoing military exercises in Belarus, Zelensky warned about the prospect of a larger-scale Russian invasion elsewhere in Europe as early as this summer.

“Knowing that he did not succeed in occupying us, we do not know where he will go. There are risks that this can be Poland and Lithuania, because we believe — we believe that Putin will wage war against NATO,” Zelensky said in Ukrainian, one of a handful of times throughout the interview when he opted to use his native language.

In English, Zelensky reiterated his message to Vice President JD Vance, whom he met with earlier Friday in Munich, saying that if the U.S. pulled out of NATO, “that will be the destroying of NATO.” He predicted that without the threat of U.S. military retaliation, Russia would begin occupying parts of Europe, particularly the former Soviet nations. He added that European NATO members don’t have the military capacity to defend themselves without the U.S.

“They will begin from those countries … small countries who’ve been in the USSR, in the Soviet Union,” Zelensky said. “But Europe will not answer, because they don’t have — they will begin to defend itself. Each country defends itself.”

He added that he couldn’t predict how much of Europe Putin would seek to occupy but that the “possibility” would always hang over the continent.

Zelensky’s comments come as the Trump administration this week outlined its own goals for peace talks between Ukraine and Russia, with Trump revealing on Wednesday that he spoke to Putin over the phone.

“As we both agreed, we want to stop the millions of deaths taking place in the War with Russia/Ukraine,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “We agreed to work together, very closely, including visiting each other’s Nations. We have also agreed to have our respective teams start negotiations immediately.”

During Friday’s interview, Zelensky thanked Trump and other American leaders for their “support” of Ukraine, but added that there is not “any leader in the world who can really make a deal with Putin without us.”

Still, the Ukrainian leader credited Trump for sparking fear in Putin, which could be what ultimately leads to substantial peace talks between the two nations.

“[Putin] doesn’t want any peace,” Zelensky said. “But I think he’s really a little bit scared about President Trump, and I think the president has this chance and he’s strong, and I think that really he can push Putin to peace negotiations.”

But Zelensky implored Trump to approach his conversations with Putin and other Russian leaders while maintaining loyalty to Ukraine. He stressed in the interview that it would be "very difficult" for Ukraine to survive without American military assistance and grappled with the level of trust he has in his partnership with the U.S. at the moment.

“I wanted very much that Ukraine is in [the] priority for Trump, not Russia. And I hope that we are more important,” the Ukrainian president said. “We are not so big as Russia, but I think strategically, Ukraine is more important for the United States, because we are really partners, allies, and we share common values.”Asked whether he believed Trump was negotiating in good faith, Zelensky said, "I hope so. I hope so. Yes, I count on it. I count on it very much."

"I trust President Trump because he's the president of the United States, because your people, your people voted for him, and I respect their choice," Zelensky said at another point in the interview.

He also warned that no one, including Trump, should trust Putin’s words on their face.

“Don’t trust Putin. Don’t trust just words about ceasefire,” the Ukrainian president said, citing his own experience getting close to a peace deal with Russia in 2019 before the deal fell apart.

Zelensky also responded to several points Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made this week, with Hegseth saying it’s “unrealistic” for Ukraine to expect to get all of the territory back that Russia has seized since 2014.

“We want, like you, a sovereign and prosperous Ukraine. But we must start by recognizing that returning to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders is an unrealistic objective,” Hegseth said during a speech at NATO’s headquarters in Brussels on Wednesday. And Trump, following his phone call with Putin, echoed that sentiment, saying that Russia had “fought for that land” and “lost a lot of soldiers.”

Zelensky told Welker on Friday that Ukrainian law prevents the nation from recognizing that Russia owns formerly Ukrainian land.

“Judicially, we will not recognize … our occupied territory like territory of Russia. We will never do it,” he said in English, while conceding that he’d be willing to discuss giving up occupied territory as part of a diplomatic deal where Ukraine could join NATO.

“Yes, we have to return it diplomatically. Yes, we can. If we are in NATO, it’s understandable why diplomatically, it’s very understandable,” Zelensky said, adding that the priority is “of course not to lose people.”

In the future, he added, Ukraine would seek a “good way, diplomatic” way to recoup territorial losses, but “the people are most important for today.”

source: tehrantimes.com